1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a sunroof structure for a vehicle and, more particularly, to a sunroof frame structure for a vehicle which is adaptable to a panorama sunroof.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a vehicle in which a conventional panorama sunroof is installed which includes 3 pieces of a front stationary glass member 504, a middle movable glass member 502 that is opened and closed by performing a sliding movement, and a rear stationary glass member 500.
Here, the front stationary glass member 504 is so opaque that light is not transmitted, and is fixed to a mounting frame. The front glass member forms a unified appearance together with the movable glass member 502 and the rear glass member 500 to improve the external appearance.
However, since the front glass member 504 is heavy and is fixed to the front side of the mounting frame, if the mounting frame is made of plastic material, sagging occurs and causes wind noise or the front glass member 504 to break. Further, also if the mounting frame is made of steel, the weight of the sunroof structure is excessively increased, making it difficult to sufficiently provide torsion strength and thereby possibly causing durability problems such as the front glass member 504 cracking at the corners.
Since the front glass member 504 is essentially formed of heavy-weight glass material, the fuel efficiency of a vehicle is reduced. Further, since the front glass member 504 is separately fixed to the mounting frame, there is less assembly required for a vehicle.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.